‘He’s unbelievable.’ Big-play Derion Talbert helps Douglass break Bryan Station.
The big-play ability of Class 6A No. 4 Frederick Douglass went on full display Saturday afternoon in a 34-14 win over No. 6 Bryan Station on the Northside.
Derion Talbert delivered two highlight-reel, game-defining moments that helped the Broncos both seize momentum in the first half and seal the victory in the second.
“How good is he, man? He’s unbelievable,” Douglass coach Nathan McPeek said of his junior running back. “And we’ve had a lot of talented players here. He’s one of the best offensive players that I’ve had in 20 years. He’s just so explosive.”
Talbert’s 61-yard run late in the second quarter flipped the field and set up Jaxon Strautman’s 17-yard touchdown pass to a leaping Aveion Chenault that helped put Douglass up 14-7 with 1:30 left to play in the half.
“I still think I scored. I didn’t think I stepped out of bounds,” said Talbert, who finished with a game-high 126 yards rushing. “But it gave us the momentum. It’s just what we needed.”
The Broncos’ five play, 93-yard scoring drive only took 1:49 off the clock at a time when the scoreboard was malfunctioning and the only way for the coaches to know the time was to ask the refs after every play.
“That great run by DT set us up and I thought Aveion, he showed why he’s got all the offers. He’s just so athletic,” McPeek said.
Later, Talbert had a 12-yard TD run to put Douglass up 28-14 early in the fourth quarter, but it was his electrifying 50-yard punt return touchdown a few minutes later that put the game away.
Talbert picked up a bouncing ball on the left hash at midfield and ran toward the right sideline. He then stomped his right foot in the ground and reversed field completely while eluding every Bryan Station would-be tackler on the way back across the field and down the left sideline all the way to the end zone.
“They had good coverage but I knew this side (the right) had more people, so it was all about setting it up,” Talbert said. “I go to the right and then take one step back and then used my speed to get to the other side.”
Douglass had plenty of other playmakers, too. Strautman, the Broncos’ sophomore quarterback, hit Terry Cayson over the middle for a 41-yard touchdown on a third-and-13 play to open the scoring in the first quarter. And Strautman had a 1-yard TD run to cap a six-play, 63-yard drive that put Douglass up 20-7 in the third quarter.
The win extended the Broncos’ win streak over Lexington rivals to 32 games. Douglass (4-3) can capture a district title with a win over George Rogers Clark next week.
“We came out to play,” Talbert said. “We knew there was a lot of hype going into this game, so it’s all about staying focused and keeping your eyes on the prize.”
Bryan Station (5-3) kept pace for a while. Trenton Cutwright capped a 14-play, 80-yard drive with a 6-yard TD pass to Dahvon Frazier in the second quarter to tie the game 7-7. Later, Kalen “Jaws” Washington’s 4-yard TD run helped Bryan Station cut Douglass’s lead to 20-14 with 1:41 left in the third quarter.
But the Defenders also had two turnovers and some devastating holding penalties that short-circuited drives. And Cutwright was sacked five times.
“You can’t kill drives with penalties and turnovers and beat them. It’s not going to happen,” Bryan Station coach Phillip Hawkins said. “But there are positives that came from it. We know we have the ability to move the ball against a super high quality team. Our kids just have to follow through with some stuff. It’s a lot of little small things come out and bite you in games like that.”
This story was originally published October 14, 2023 at 7:24 PM.
